Eleven

"There are other places that do that," she assures Ellie. "And, you can buy boxes of ice cream to keep in your home." It feels important to add that, in case she thinks she can only get ice cream from places like this. "But you can't scoop it with a spoon. You have to buy a special spoon that is very thick and strong." She'd had to fix a few spoons, learning from that mistake.

Something else occurs to her, then, and her eyes widen. "Have you had root beer?" she asks, enunciating the two words separately instead of squishing them together the way many people do. "It is delicious by itself, but I also like to have it with a scoop of ice cream inside. It is called a root beer float. It is one of my favorites." It still doesn't stand up to her and Hop's Eggo Extravaganza, but she worries Ellie can handle only so much dessert news at once.